This Saturday we’ll be opening up the Lost Art Press storefront for business and for making a little bit of history.
We are in the final throes of editing “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Furniture” and are asking anyone who can rub two participles together to help. Come to the storefront (837 Willard St. Covington, KY 41011) at any time between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
We’ll give you some pages to edit and a red pen. You’ll get to read the text, look for typos and help us make this project as perfect as possible. Everyone who helps with the project will get free coffee, doughnuts, beer and pizza. And for every plate you edit we have a special Roubo postcard for you.
You are welcome to help edit the text for just one plate or even edit all day (that’s what we’ll be doing).
As per usual, we’ll also have all our books there, plus blemished books (50 percent off – cash only), T-shirts, posters and free stickers. Plus you’ll be able to check out the new Roman workbench I just completed and tinker with its workholding.
When we published “The Joiner & Cabinet Maker” I had a large number of images that didn’t make it into the book for space reasons. So I put together three narrated slideshows – one for each of the projects in the book: the packing box, the schoolbox and the chest of drawers.
We sold these (along with some other assorted extras) on a CD. As CD-ROM drives have disappeared, we considered offering these as streaming video. Then we said: Nah, let’s just give them away for free.
So now you can watch all three narrated slideshows for the book on our Vimeo channel with no advertisements or other garbage. I’ve also embedded them here for your convenience.
As a kid one of my favorite things to do was poke around the attics of my grandparents’ houses. Dark and dusty with all the relics of life past stored away. When I was young most of the ghost stories seemed to always begin with noises from the attic or basement. At that age a ghost seemed much more of a possibility than it does now, so that definitely added to the thrill.
The most interesting parts of old houses and buildings are often times for me the parts not usually seen. In these places construction details such as tool marks, Roman numerals on the joints between timbers and sometimes even mistakes can be found uncovered by plaster or sheeting. Of course there are also the things that did not get thrown out that tend to accumulate in these places, saved for whatever reason and are still lying around that often have their own stories and history as well.
Saturday I managed to slip off for a while and go on the attics and basements tour at Hancock Shaker Village. What an experience! Of the 20-plus buildings at Hancock many have areas closed to the public that can only be seen on the tour.
A few of the highlights for me: The upper stories of the machine shop. All kinds of lathes, belts, pulleys and various other equipment are stored here. An old drill press with its flat belts that run through the floor below, looking as if someone had just stepped away from using it but has not run in decades.
The upper floors of the brick dwelling where many of the artifacts not on display are stored. This area looks like time stopped completely in the many rooms, staircases and hallways.
Of course there is also the basement of the trustees building where there dozens of tombstones are stored. These were removed from the cemetery at some point and replaced them with a single large monument. The Shakers, being utilitarians, used some of the tombstones later on as ironing boards.
This is just a very, very brief summery of the tour. If I tried to write about all the things we saw it would be a volume too large for a blog post! The attics and basements tour cost a few extra bucks on top of regular admission price, and I highly recommend it.
I’ve been reviewing tools and machinery for 20 years now, both in Popular Woodworking Magazine and on my various blogs. But that long career of reviewing equipment ended in January of this year.
When it became obvious that John Hoffman, Raney Nelson and I were going to start Crucible Tool, I told editor Megan Fitzpatrick that I could not write any more Tool Test entries for the magazine or for the website. It simply isn’t fair, by any stretch, for me to both make tools and criticize tools made by other makers.
As a result, you aren’t going to see any more reviews from me (Yay! Or Boo! Take your pick). I’ll still have my opinions about toolmaking, and I’ll still be happy to share my ideas for what a proper woodworking tool should do. But I’ll no longer praise or condemn makers by name.
I know that some of you are also wondering what this tool company means for Lost Art Press. Will we publish fewer books? Will I outsource the editing to other people?
The answer to both is “no.” We will continue to publish four titles a year (five if we can manage it). I will continue to be the person who edits every word of every book to make sure things make sense and flow smoothly. What will be different (and it has been for a couple years), is that I have found people I trust to help with page layout, indexing and copy editing (finding the last typos).
When we started Lost Art Press, I did all of those functions so we could save money and keep our prices reasonable.
So Lost Art Press isn’t changing one iota because of the birth of Crucible Tool.
A few other people have asked what the h#$& kind of hubris-flavored Kool-Aid I’m drinking to think that I could work as a toolmaker. I could attempt to answer that question, but I prefer to let the tools we’re designing and making to answer that question.
Finally, one more personal detail I’d like to mention. We’re going to remain a fairly small company, I’m sure. Though Lost Art Press ships more than 30,000 books a year, we are still just two people with laptops. Crucible is not intended to become a company that sets out to make the complete core set of hand tools (such as Veritas or Lie-Nielsen Toolworks).
We think there are a lot of tools that need to be made that aren’t currently on the market. Manufacturing those tools will keep us busy for at least the next five years and probably beyond. We probably will have to hire employees eventually and we might grow more than I anticipate. But our core philosophy is not to steal market share away from anyone. We think there’s a lot of room for other toolmakers to supply the needs of woodworkers.
And now we’re going to test that theory.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Several of you have asked for details about our launch event on Sept. 15. We will have hours and an RSVP system set up in the next week or so. So thanks for your patience.
Welcome back to the work week. I hope everyone had a great weekend with time to relax and rejuvenate. Or, if you are like me, it was enjoyable but exhausting. Either way, Monday has snuck up on us and this means it is time to avoid real work and read the forum. Remember, if you have a question about our products, procedures in our books or anything related to Lost Art Press, the fastest way to get an answer is our forum. Check it out here.
Has Anyone Worked Extensively with Redwood? Any ideas what you would do if you had 150 bf of tight grain quarter sawn redwood? Joshua is trying to decide what type of project would be best for the wood he acquired a few years ago. Let him know your visions here.
Boarded Bookshelf: Backboards not Attached to Rail Michael was looking for feedback on how to attach the backboard to his bookshelf project. He has gotten a couple helpful responses so far but feel free to add how you attached yours. In the meantime, I wanted to share his picture. (at top) I love to see modifications to projects to fit individual needs and spaces.
More Questions About the Staked Worktable Jeremy is considering make the table from “The Anarchist’s Design Book” for his younger brother to use as a computer table. However, he would like to make it a knock-down table. This has come up before so let him know if any of you have learned any tricks along the way. Has what you did help up? Have you had to make any modifications?
Bow Front Need Help Ron’s friend has a bow-front chest and is not having any luck finding modern pulls to fit the curvature of the piece. He is curious if they can still be bought or if they need to be bent to fit. See if you can help him out here.
Mid Century Modern Console Has anyone built a piece of furniture with hand tools that has a slider door? If so, Ron (a different Ron if you are wondering) is curious to hear how you did it. Give him some pointers here.
Finished And, as I like to do, let’s end with a finished build. It took a year in the making but E Hilfers followed “Chairmaker’s Notebook” and finished his first windsor chair. (at right) Congrats! It turned out beautifully!